Recent AEW signee Ruby Soho recently appeared on Chris Jericho’s podcast Talk is Jericho. On the show, they discussed what lead Ruby to All Elite Wrestling and what it is like being in a new company. They also discussed the origin of both the Ruby Soho name and her former name of Ruby Riott in WWE and more. The recap can be found below.
On being in AEW:
“It’s a dream, honestly. I don’t even know if I have the words to describe it. I feel like I am living a completely different life. But that’s so untrue, becasue the lives that I have lived before have lead me to this point. I’m so unbelievably grateful, and this place is so special. This really just seems too good to be true. The people are super nice, Tony [Khan] is amazing. Everyone has been super responsive and the crowds are unbelievable, not just in Chicago, they were amazing in Cincinnati. So I know that it wasn’t just a one time thing, I am so happy to be a part of it and so excited to fall back in love in wrestling again.”
On what lead Ruby to AEW:
“It wasn’t a difficult decision by any means. It wasn’t even necessarily like ‘Will I decide to go to AEW?’ It was like ‘Can I get into AEW?’ I think that it is kind of silly for people to just be like ‘Oh I don’t work at this one place anymore, I’ll just go [here].’ But we are becoming the place right now. I love that I get to say we because I am part of the team. I didn’t expect to just be here, becasue this place was so amazing and I was just really hoping that I could get here. I was really hoping that I could be a part of the team and help create these amazing things and tell these amazing stories. I’ve always said that I am in the right place at the right time, but I am just grateful that I am able to do that. It wasn’t a difficult decision, when I was offered the opportunity, it was an immediate yes.”
On the origin of the Ruby Soho name:
“So I have been a fan of Rancid for a long time. They are one of the first punk bands that I had ever listened to. I always looked at Lars [Frederiksen, guitarist for the band Rancid] as somebody that I idolised. When you looked at the way that he carried himself, that is a confident dude. He embodied to me what punk was, do what you want and who cares what people think about you. He was just so cool. So at one point in time, when I was in WWE, a lot of my co-workers were making their pay per view gear in inspiration from comic book characters. I wanted to do punk rockers that I idolised, and the first one I wanted to do was Lars. So for my Elimination Chamber match, the gear was inspired by him. It was his Inked magazine photoshoot, it was like a sweater vest with the plaid polo shirt on underneath. I was like, OK this is weird but I am going to ask Lars if I can do it. So I direct messaged him ‘Hey, this is weird, I don’t know if you even know who I am. But is it cool if I…’ He was like ‘I’d be honoured. That’s so cool, let me know if you need anything…’ He was so rad about it, he was so nice. I guess I didn’t realise [he was a wrestling fan]. I knew he was friends with CM Punk but I didn’t know the level of wrestling fandom. At one point he just decided to randomly send me a bunch of Rancid stuff to my house. Then I sent him a bunch of stuff to his kids. Anything I can get my hands on like T-shirts, merch and stuff. We had kind of become friends at that point. But when I got released, I wasn’t really planning on doing a lot of interviews or podcasts. At that time it was really hard, I was really sad about it. I didn’t know if it was the time. But Lars asked me to, so if Lars asks I’m gonna do it! During that time I still didn’t know what I was going to be called. I didn’t really like my indie name of Heidi Lovelace. I didn’t really like it becasue it was given to me, it was never pronounced correctly. I didn’t want to use it again. I mentioned that to the guys in the podcast. I said I wanted to keep Ruby becasue it feels a lot like me. I hold it near and dear to my heart becasue it was inspired by the song Ruby Soho. He laughed and goes ‘Well why don’t you use that?’ I immediately just crumbled and melted into 13 year old me. Lars was like ‘Yeah let me get a couple of guys on the phone. We can get you Ruby Soho, we can get you the song. We can get this figured out.’ I am in front of a camera trying to hide my face becasue this is not real! He is offering to give me the name and the song. Everything just fell into place so perfectly. I’m very grateful to them. As soon after the debut happened I thanked them becasue I didn’t know if they were going to like me or just the song. So thank you for letting me ride the coattails of coolness.”
On her social media vignettes:
“So the vignettes kind of alluded to that. I had changed my [social media] handle, becasue I had to. I changed it to Real Ruby Soho, but that hadn’t been definitive. I just wanted to use it so I could use the ‘Destination Unknown.’ At the time I didn’t know where I was going. The ‘Destination Unknown’ wasn’t just for everyone else, it was for me. I think that I had used that for a while in the vignettes when the name was approved. With each vignette I wanted to pay homage to things I have done in the past and take people onto a journey of what happened after I got released. The last one was saying ‘OK, she is Ruby Soho.’ But I didn’t know how many people had seen the vignettes. All I had them on was my Instagram and my Twitter, so how big could they get? They got enough buzz so people knew my name, and that was better. If they had chanted Ruby Riott, I would appreciate it 100%, but I would feel like there is still work to be done to disassociate me from what I once was. But I was able to come out as this new person and be accepted.”
On her WWE release:
“When I got released I got a genuine sense of panic. What do I do now? I haven’t been on the indies in 5 years, I don’t know if I am going to be successful in that. And with the pandemic there are not a lot of indies going on. Can I get to AEW? I just had so many questions going through my head. It came as a shock, I didn’t know. I had no feeling or anything like that. I was very sad and I loved the girls that I shared the locker room with. Those women became like sisters to me. They had done some release prior to that, but there wasn’t any indication [of them doing more]. I always kept my head on a swivel, you always know you are expendable and you are replaceable. But in that moment, I just bought a house and I was like everything is great! But then it happened and I’m like wow! This is intense. I didn’t know what to do. I cried, panicked and ate a box of Oreos. [Chris asked for a reason from WWE for why Ruby got released] The only reason I have ever heard is budget cuts. But I can’t say bad things about my experience there. I learned a lot of stuff there and The Riott Squad girls that I became lifelong friends with. I am the godmother to Sarah Rowe’s son and I speak to Liv Morgan on a regular basis. They were my sisters and they stayed that way. I think the appreciation I got was the fact that people hadn’t seen everything from me at my previous job, and I was excited to give it to them.”
On getting the news she was going to WWE back in the day:
“When you get the hiring phone call, you always think that you are going to be somewhere where like, confetti rains from the ceiling. You think it’s going to be this perfect moment. I was working as a bartender at the time, and they were somewhere overseas, so they couldn’t call me. I got this email and after I got the email, I’m eating next door to this bar, it had an amazing hotdog place. I’m eating this hotdog with pulled pork on it, I’m like I didn’t get hired. My phone goes off and I immediately start running through the bar with BBQ sauce all over my face ‘I got the job!’ It was not the most glamourous.”
The origin of the Ruby Riott name:
“So I am actually the one who pitched that. Ruby was from Ruby Soho, and at the time I wasn’t pals with Lars. I just was trying to figure out a last name that was to the point and expressed my personality and really felt like I could let loose and pronounce, unlike Lovelace. It was super last minute, I think it was ‘let’s give her this name.’ When I got to the main roster they added a t [Riott]. I think that Riot Squad was trademarked. We were looking at our Tron and I was like ‘Did they spell our name wrong?’ They say ‘Oh we added a t.’ I’m like oh ok. But Ruby just fit me a lot better than Heidi ever did.”
On praise for Ronda Rousey:
“She’s awesome. She gave me one of my favourite matches while I was there. She’s one of those people who is incredibly humble when she does not know a lot about what she is in at the moment. But she is a sponge and picks up things super fast. She has amazing instincts and she is awesome. We had a match at Elimination Chamber and we were on the house shows prior to that. She and I had this match that we were super proud of and really excited to do. We got to the show and we had the time that we thought, but a few minutes later we were told it’s going to be 2 minutes, Ronda taps Ruby out. It was that moment of [sighs] OK. But I knew the story wasn’t about me, it was leading into WrestleMania and the Women’s main event. But I was so excited about that match, it was just a beautiful melody of our 2 styles. I wanted to approach her in the way of I don’t want to be put in a hold, becasue then I tap and I’m done. I love that challenge of looking at her. I asked her what are all the things I can do to you that are not legal in MMA? She was like headbutts etc. So that was all I could do. But I was so bummed. Next thing I know, Ronda went in and rallied for that match to happen the next night on RAW. She went and she said ‘I always have a title defence the night after a pay per view, and I want it to be Ruby. She rallied for me and that night we were the main event of RAW. The match went well and was one of my favourite matches there. I loved working with her.”
On her goals in AEW:
“I want to wrestle as much as humanly possible and be the ring as much as I can. I feel that I have a lot of catching up to do. Not necessarily becasue I haven’t been in the ring, but I am falling back in love. I want to wrestle as much as possible, these girls are absolutely incredible and want to wrestle as much as I do. I think each of these girls is going to bring out a different side of me and I am really excited about that. I just want to come to work and have fun. I want to sing and air guitar with the fans to my incredible entrance music. I just want to have a good time and to tell some stories. If I can, I want to take this women’s division to the next level and show that AEW is the top tier product.”
Ruby Soho can be found on Instagram here and Twitter here.
Featured image: Sports Illustrated
